Citi has poached Jeff Emmanuel from UBS to take charge of its financial institutions groups in Australia and New Zealand. Emmanuel will also be responsible for some other global bank relationships, said a source.
Emmanuel joins Citi as a managing director and is also vice-chairman for Australia and New Zealand global banking. He will be based in Hong Kong and will work closely with Chris Knoblanche and Tony Osmond. Knoblanche heads global banking for Citi in Australia and New Zealand. Citi poached Osmond last year from Goldman Sachs and appointed him head of investment banking for Australia and New Zealand. Emmanuel will also work closely with Simon Yoo and Jing Zhao, who head FIG for Asia-Pacific at the US bank.
“I am delighted to welcome Jeff to Citi — he has a track record of delivering success for clients and has led some of the key transactions in the FIG space across Australia, New Zealand and the wider region,” said Farhan Faruqui, head of global banking for Asia-Pacific for Citi. “This key hire underlines Citi’s commitment to offer clients the best talent in the industry to support their needs.”
Emmanuel was most recently at UBS in Hong Kong, where he was managing director for the Swiss bank’s Asia-Pacific FIG businesses. He moved to Hong Kong last year from Sydney where he was the head of local equities for UBS. Emmanuel spent nine years with UBS in investment banking.
The hire comes just weeks after another MD-level appointment Citi made in its FIG business, when it hired Brian McCullough to lead the bank’s capital advisory services for financial institutions across the region, a newly created position to help clients conform to new Basel III regulations. McCullough joined Citi from PacBridge Capital Partners in Hong Kong where he had spent the past two years.
It is not surprising that Citi is strengthening its FIG practice in the region. Some of the largest and most remunerative equity deals in the past few years were from banks, which have also traditionally been regular issuers in debt markets. And, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, financial institutions M&A has also been busy as institutions have sought to rationalise their geographical presence or were forced to divest businesses to shore up their balance sheets. Finally, enhanced regulation of the sector, such as Basel III, is also creating advisory opportunities. Citi must be hoping that its new hires will help it to corner a larger share of the FIG pie.
A UBS spokesperson said that a replacement for Emmanuel has not yet been announced.
